Exhibition in Berlin Documents the Varied and Wideranging Career of Romy Schneider

Daniela Sannwald, curator of the exhibition "Romy Schneider: Vienna-Berlin-Paris" poses with photographs of the French film star. Photo: EFE/Alina Novopashina.

BERLIN.- The exhibition Romy Schneider. Wien  Berlin  Paris, which the Museum für Film und Fernsehen will present beginning on December 5th, documents the varied and wideranging career of Romy Schneider, who no longer wanted to be Sissi at the end of the 1950s and was celebrated as a star of French cinema in the 1970s.

Romy Schneider publicly bemoaned her roles in Germany and went to Paris to play women who did justice to her acting abilities and her expectations. She settled in France at the beginning of the 1970s, where she advanced to one of the biggest stars of French cinema. She won several awards and made films with nearly all the great directors and actors of that period. The paparazzi followed the actress at every turn, documenting her strokes of fate for the international popular press, and throughout her life Romy Schneider considered herself to be their victim. Romy Schneider died in Paris in May 1982. To this day, she is admired by millions of fans around the world as one of cinemas international stars.

This homage, which can be seen in 450 sq. m. of exhibition space at the Filmhaus, treats both the diverse roles and changing image of the actress, as well as her representation in the media.

Pictures from films, the press and her private life are grouped according to recurring motifs and combined with film clips. Media installations show the interplay between projection and active self-promotion. Posters, costumes, correspondence and fan souvenirs will augment the presentation.

Numerous photographs from the 1950s and 1960s of Romy Schneider, her film partners and her family, largely unknown until now, originate from the collections of Deutsche Kinemathek. Loans from other institutions and private individuals will also be on view, for instance from the photographers F. C. Gundlach and Robert Lebeck, as well as from the personal archives of the film director Claude Sautet.